Spain

[Zardnaar]

The country known as Spain has contained numerous civilisations. The Phoenicians,Carthagians,Romans, Visigoths and Muslims have all occupied part of Spain at some point in history. As a result the country has a rich cultural history. Queen Isabella of Spain backed Christopher Columbus's expedition to discover America in 1492. In the following decades the Spanish conquistadors destroyed and enslaved numerous American Indian tribes and civilizations including the Aztecs and Incas. The gold taken from America was so great it devalued the price of gold in Europe. In 1588 the Spanish amassed a fleet known as the Armada to punish England for the piracy on the treasure fleets sent from the Americas to Spain. England inflicted a massive defeat on the Armada and the Spanish Empire declined quickly. Today Spanish is spoken by millions of people worldwide due to Spains imperial legacy.

In the game the Spanish have the religeous and seafaring traits which fit its history perfectly. Individually they are perhaps some of the weaker traits in the game. Togather they have little synergy and it is a somewhat awkward trait combination. The religeous trait gives you half priced temples and cathedrals and reduces the amount of time spent in anarchy when you change goverment. The seafaring trait gives you bonus gold per turn for each city that starts on the coast, +1 movement for naval units and a reduced chance for lost at sea accidents for pre industrial age ships. However it is map dependent- great on island and continent maps, weak on pangea maps.

Spain gets to start with ceremonial burial and alphabet as starting techs. This allows them to build cheap temples at the start of the game and to attempt to reach philosophy 1st and try grab literature or republic for free. A headstart on the philosophy gambit is always nice. With the ability to make early contacts via scout curraghs Spain can often get an early tech lead and makes a decent tech trading civ. A quick change to republic or monarchy can see Spain off to a geat start. However sooner or later you may need to go to war.

As a warmonger Spain fares poorly. It has no early decisive UU and it traits are weak for any aggressive or even defensive plays. In a world of immortals and mounted warriors and rapid expanding civilizations like the Incas, Spain should avoid early wars unless you have no other choice. A late game Spain is average at best with only rapid change of government from Republic/Democracy to Communism/Fascism to recommend for a warmonger player. Some civs that have weak traits for war however have and excellent UU's to compensate. Spain isn't one of them. Overall a 3rd tier warmongering civ.

Spains UU is the Conquistador. It costs 70 shields and replaces the explorer and is a 3/2/2 unit that requires horses to build and treats all terrain as roads. It is of limited use however as its weaker than a knight, arrives late in the middle ages and at that point of the game is unlikely to have any exploring to do. However it isn't intended as a primary assault UU and makes a decent pillager or can be used as a special force type unit to knock out a critical resource. It get slightly better in the early industrial age when you have developed cities with factories and the shield cost isn't so prohibitive. Overall though it is one of the weaker UUs in the game and seems entirely optional to build.

Spains redeeming feature is as a culture/builder civ. By making rapid intercontinental contact and using the above mentioned philosophy gambit Spain can get off to a rapid tech lead. You can easily switch to republic with Spain and stay there for the rest of the game. Spain has a reasonable chance for a 20K cultural victory. An early temple build and a coastal start lets you build the Colossus early on if you can trade for bronze working and with alphabet the Great Libary is only a few techs away. On an island map Spain is a excellent buider civ. Overall though Spain is a 2nd tier culture/builder civ. Its not a bad civ but there are quite a few scientific/religeous civs that are better than it.

Overall Spain is a low 3rd tier civ. However like a few 3rd tier civs it has a niche it fits into. On an island map its a good candidate for cultural victory . If you can beat the AI with this civ its probably time to increase the difficulty level you're playing at. Spain is also a good candidate for the top worst 5 civs award but if you're after a challenge and an interesting civ to play Spain has a role.

[Mr. Hyperbole]

Zardnaar: another excellent review. Right on target, as usual.
I'm really impatient to see the rest of the civ reviews...um...so will you have them done soon?

Just kidding.

Again, top notch review!

[Crimso]

Yeah, these are great. Can you do France next?.

[Richard Cribb]

Excellent review! It just confirms my suspicion that Spain under most circumstances is rather cumbersome. And it is quite something that the country whose armies dominated Europe for centuries is so feeble at warmongering here...
Crimso: Keirador has already posted an equally excellent review on the French:http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=103289

[dgfred]

Nice review! Good job! I never new about the different occupations of Spain
, until I started playing civ- especially Carthage's , then Rome.

[LostKnight]

Spain really never had an army, they were so rich they they bought other army! But since gold is not an infinite ressources, spain got broke while France and England, who used the Spanish gold to build thing got their "goldens ages"

[Crimso]

Thanks luceafarul, I couldn't find it in the War Academy last time I checked.

[Zardnaar]

I'll probably do the Dutch or England next. Looks like Keirador and myself will be finishing the reviews series off.

[bed_head7]

Didn't you already do the guide to England? Rule Britannia or something?

[Zardnaar]

Yeah but I was going to do it as a review eventually just to make it nice and official.

[MikeH]

Originally Posted by LostKnight

Spain really never had an army, they were so rich they they bought other army! But since gold is not an infinite ressources, spain got broke while France and England, who used the Spanish gold to build thing got their "goldens ages"

Yes they were hardly a dominant force in Europe for centuries, the 16th century was their Golden Age, but they faded fast after that, the victory of the Dutch rebels started their decline. The Soanish empire hung around until the 19th century, but they kept losing bits to France and Britain. By the nineteenth century they were easily overrun by Napoleon (although Spanish guerilllas gave the French problems in the aftermath).

[Richard Cribb]

Originally Posted by MikeH

Yes they were hardly a dominant force in Europe for centuries, the 16th century was their Golden Age, but they faded fast after that, the victory of the Dutch rebels started their decline. The Soanish empire hung around until the 19th century, but they kept losing bits to France and Britain. By the nineteenth century they were easily overrun by Napoleon (although Spanish guerilllas gave the French problems in the aftermath).

http://www.geocities.com/ao1617/TercioUK.html
Check out this link and find out what should have been Spain's UU at the same time.I agree that my statement might have been a bit unprecise, more than a century is more correct, however the Spanish school's contribution to European warfare can hardly be underestimated.
The main reasons for Spain's decline were political ones, but I think we are moving suffienctly away from the topic already, so I rest my case.
My apologies for thread-jacking.

[Drakan]

Yes Spain has a crappy UU and comes far too late. I don't normally choose them for their bad traits. Totally agree their 3rd tier civ.

Firaxis, Spain deserves a more powerful UU. Beef up the Conquistador, please. Or give us our armies: Los Tercios.

Nice review Zardnaar, very objective, safe that part in which the English defeated in 1588 the "Invincible" Armada. I think bad weather helped you out...wouldn't you agree ?

[Zardnaar]

Drakan a defeat is still a defeat regardless of the method achieved. The English fire ships helped a bit. Anyway I only add snipets of history to my reviews- you are quite correct though.

[steviejay]

Good review man

Spain shall conquer all!!! lol

[rbis4rbb]

Spain is pretty garbage (In Civ) good review.

[Zardnaar]

Spain is one of the few AI civs I'm not to worried about if they start nearby. The AI plays them miserably.

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

In defense of Spain: They are not merely a candidate for 20k, they are theCiv of choice when you go for 20k on Deity or DG.
Insanely early Temple + Colossus + no time Anarchy + Great Library + Sistine (Sun Tzu's as prebuild works nearly always) triggering a GA right in time to grab Copernicus.
Now you only have to survive and make sure nobody wins before ~1800AD...

[thetrooper]

Yes, I performed my fastest 20k with Spain. I must admit that I had extreme luck: 4 SGLs during my game.

[Sukenis]

Originally Posted by Drakan

Yes Spain has a crappy UU and comes far too late. I don't normally choose them for their bad traits. Totally agree their 3rd tier civ.

Firaxis, Spain deserves a more powerful UU. Beef up the Conquistador, please. Or give us our armies: Los Tercios.

Hold on there...

Like Korea, Spain has a UU that is (almost) broken when used correctly. With the AI not attacking armies, make a pure Conquistador army and watch it pillage 9 tile PER TURN!!!! An outside the box strategy (that I did not come up with) but it make the Conquistador insanely powerful. Anyone who messes with you will have their entire nation back to the stone age improvement wise. After that, not matter what Civ the AI is they are toast.

Try this out some time. You will be amazed at the results.